# per capita, which professions have the most assholes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605 "2014-04-08T01:45:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/61 "2014-04-10T01:46:14Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > I’ve got to second teachers. Try to convince a teacher that she’s wrong about something. Anything. Or he. ---
**Author:** ![delsina363](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@delsina363](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delsina363)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/62 "2014-04-11T00:05:21Z")
Doctors. I work in a non-profit hospital. They are really, really, not nice. I work with hundreds of doctors, and there are only 2-3 that I like. I have the job of doing their expense and travel reports for reimbursement. The things they submit for reimbursement are just wrong. If I tell them they cannot be reimbursed, or question an expense, they can be really mean and condescending. I am always reminded that they consider me as beneath them. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/63 "2014-04-11T02:25:59Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > What I’ve noticed in STEM fields is usually a lot of people are angry, miserable, frustrated, etc. I wonder if that is due to people in those fields having below average interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. [This is why.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg) STEM workers are typically the ones who actually design and build things. But they are often told what to do by managers or salespeople who may not be as knowledgeable or intelligent, make more money and often have unreasonable or unrealistic demands. Often STEM people are highly intelligent and analytical but have trouble with the illogical nuances of human interaction. Not to mention that a lot of STEMs are treated as “nerds” or “dorks” because of their interest in STEM fields. STEM fields require a lot of work and study which takes time away from socializing and many STEMs pursue those fields because they don’t particularly like to socialize anyway. So in a nutshell, STEM is difficult field that isn’t always rewarded or appreciated and that leads to a lot of frustration. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/64 "2014-04-11T06:41:39Z")
Professions? When I sunk to the lower levels of society, I found that while ordinary people have bad managers, the poor and unskilled have managers who _aren’t good enough to be bad managers except at the bottom_ However bad the professions may be, there are even worse people who are too much of an asshole to make it in a profession. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/65 "2014-04-11T16:17:20Z")
> [@Melchior](#): > > I remember some ‘female’ English TA marking my freshman English essay with a big red mark concerning the spelling of ‘judgement’ as ‘British spelling’. I brought a copy of a Merriam-Webster Collegiate to her and shoved her nose in it and made her aware that ‘judgement’ is a \*\*\*correct \*\*\*alternate spelling, and made her change my grade. This was when papers were hand-written, by the way. ‘Judgment’ is a stupid spelling anyway. Do we have ‘managment’? The ‘e’ is necessary to indicate the soft ‘g’ sound! Most TAs think they are so smart. They are not! Why did you put quotes around “female”? Are you trying to indicate that she was not actually a female person but something else? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/66 "2014-04-11T16:31:13Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Or he. I said “she” because most teachers are women. The same thing applies to male teachers. It doesn’t matter if you’re an adult. It really doesn’t even matter if you’re more knowledgeable than the teacher in this subject area. The teacher is right, and there is no possible conceivable way that this could not be true :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Melchior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Melchior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melchior)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/67 "2014-04-11T16:32:29Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Why did you put quotes around “female”? Are you trying to indicate that she was not actually a female person but something else? I didn’t like her. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/68 "2014-04-11T16:52:42Z")
From personal experience, I would have to say the military.Especially people who choose to re-enlist or officers who are attempting to make a career of the military. Why? [ol] [li]**Re-enlisting in the military often means that you know that you can’t hack it in the civilian (read: real) world** - Seriously, I was in the Air Force with guys who thought that Airmen Performance Reports being signed by officers actually meant something. Boy were they surprised when they got out and nobody gave a rat’s ass. “What’s an APR?”[/li][li] **Officers think that all but the most senior enlisted are unwashed idiots whose opinions are meaningless** - Just because you went to a service academy or college and then joined the military doesn’t mean that you are more knowledgeable about everything or a better person than someone else. The world doesn’t work like that.[/li][li] **Most junior NCOs got a vicarious thrill from not having to take the same shit that they did when they weren’t NCOs** - Most of the time they looked like power-tripping assholes and they got laughed at or ignored. When I made NCO just before I got out I realized that I was just as unimportant as a was before but only paid slightly more for that privilege.[/li][li] **High-ranking officers seem to believe that they were anointed by a higher power** - I had officers with subdued ranks ( hard to see until you are up close) actually stop and get angry because I failed to recognize their rank and salute them SOONER than I did.[/li][li]**Long-term military members often see civilians as being sheep or idiots (or worse both)**- I don’t know how many discussions I listened of how people outside the military “didn’t understand the world.” This was as if the military wasn’t simply a welfare program where you might have to kill people to earn your benefits.[/li][/ol] Low pay. High sense of self entitlement and self importance. Low-budget treachery Overall meaninglessness in the scheme of things. The military has it all! ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/69 "2014-04-13T05:11:10Z")
HR breeds a lot. (Present company excepted, of course.) Of the last 3 HR places that come to mind immediately, 2 had a full contingent. Health workers seem to attract a really disproportionate share of real A-holes deluxe. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/70 "2014-04-14T15:55:08Z")
> [@delsina363](#): > > Doctors. I work in a non-profit hospital. They are really, really, not nice. I work with hundreds of doctors, and there are only 2-3 that I like. I have the job of doing their expense and travel reports for reimbursement. The things they submit for reimbursement are just wrong. If I tell them they cannot be reimbursed, or question an expense, they can be really mean and condescending. I am always reminded that they consider me as beneath them. My own experience as a pharmacist is that the young women doctors are the very worst, too. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/71 "2014-04-15T11:36:14Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > The clergy. > > I’m not actually kidding, nor am I making a snarky jab at religion (I’m a Christian). Apparently sociopaths like to manipulate people, and they gravitate to jobs like the clergy where they can find trusting parishioners to manipulate. Christian clergy include a disproportionate number of sociopaths. I agree, re people in religious leadership positions in general. That is a field which gives opportunities for manipulative / bullying behaviour, and people who are that way inclined, can find it an attractive one to enter. Often they don’t realise what they’re doing, and genuinely think that they are being selfless, and that they are in a serving role. ---
**Author:** ![Neutral](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/977dab/32.png) [@Neutral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neutral)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/72 "2014-04-15T16:32:44Z")
I’ve had 5 french teachers in my life and 3/4 of them have been complete dicks/bitches. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/73 "2014-04-15T17:37:29Z")
> [@Neutral](#): > > I’ve had 5 french teachers in my life and 3/4 of them have been complete dicks/bitches. You’ve had five teachers, and you have to subdivide them into _fourths_? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/74 "2014-04-15T17:42:22Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > You’ve had five teachers, and you have to subdivide them into _fourths_? :smack: Sacrebleu!! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/75 "2014-04-15T18:03:00Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > You’ve had five teachers, and you have to subdivide them into _fourths_? :smack: He’s clearly a humanities major… ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/76 "2014-04-15T18:10:07Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > I agree, re people in religious leadership positions in general. That is a field which gives opportunities for manipulative / bullying behaviour, and people who are that way inclined, can find it an attractive one to enter. Often they don’t realise what they’re doing, and genuinely think that they are being selfless, and that they are in a serving role. Opportunities? By DEFINITION being a religious leader is a manipulative, bullying position. The whole point is to scare people into towing the line (toeing?) under threat that you are speaking on behalf of some all-powerful all-knowing vengeful being who will punish them. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/77 "2014-04-15T18:33:37Z")
> [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > Investment bankers. With a single known exception, they all think they’re the center of the universe. I’m reading “Divide” by Matt Taibbi right now. If the stories he presents are at all representative (and that’s a BIG if, I know) this seems the best choice. ---
**Author:** ![llcoolbj77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@llcoolbj77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/llcoolbj77)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/78 "2014-04-15T19:06:21Z")
I am a lawyer. I married a lawyer. I am friends with lots and lots of lawyers. We are all, almost exclusively, horrific assholes to some degree or another. Going to law school was like picking the 200 hundred people you hated the most from HS and College and putting them in a room together… then having the discussion led by the biggest asshole on the planet… the law professor. We are all smart enough to be in a position to really fuck up someone’s life, but we also have a chip on our shoulders’ for not being quite smart enough to be surgeons, engineers, or rocket scientists. We also have a profession-wide problem with substance abuse and mental health issues. Pretty much, we rule. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/79 "2014-04-15T19:27:40Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > I agree, re people in religious leadership positions in general. That is a field which gives opportunities for manipulative / bullying behaviour, and people who are that way inclined, can find it an attractive one to enter. Often they don’t realise what they’re doing, and genuinely think that they are being selfless, and that they are in a serving role. > [@msmith537](#): > > Opportunities? By DEFINITION being a religious leader is a manipulative, bullying position. The whole point is to scare people into towing the line (toeing?) under threat that you are speaking on behalf of some all-powerful all-knowing vengeful being who will punish them. Something gives me the feeling that you are, overall, a bit un-keen on religion… ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605/80 "2014-04-15T19:34:03Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > Something gives me the feeling that you are, overall, a bit un-keen on religion… A lot of us feel this way. Priests are either con men, or delusional people being paid by other delusional people to teach still other delusional people how to be even more delusional. Were I answering the question solely based on my own childhood experiences (in Catholic grade school), I would have answered “nuns.” But that’s just my opinion. I too may be an asshole too, but I’m sure it’s not related to my own profession – office flunky. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/per-capita-which-professions-have-the-most-assholes/685605.md?page=5)